TV quake coverage attracts highest audience in 16 years

TV3's Mike McRoberts reporting from the Christchurch Earthquake scene. Photo / Supplied

Last week's earthquake coverage attracted the highest audience viewing figures in 16 years.

TVNZ's public relations manager for news and current affairs, Andi Brotherston, says it appears viewers were drawn into the news and then continued to watch other programmes.

Brotherston says the last time so many people watched television was 1995, before fragmentation and the internet, and superseded the number of people using television when the Twin Towers fell on September 11, 2001.

While TV2 cult-favourites the Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men and Shortland Street and TV One's Piha Rescue remain among the shows dominating the upper-echelon of the week's ratings, the main news programmes were higher up the ratings schedule than usual. TV One's news specials attracted 44 per cent of its share while TV3 took 22 per cent over the course of the week.

TV3 confirmed the news had increased viewing of other TV3 programmes, with ratings up 34 per cent in the 18-49 age group against the previous week. Looking just at the 6pm news slot, viewership was up 45 per cent and it had risen 25 per cent in the 7.30pm-10.30pm slot, with Wednesday show Sons of Anarchy, new Thursday show An Idiot Abroad and new Monday shows Bigger, Better, Faster Stronger and The Almighty Johnsons among those benefiting from the higher audience numbers.

Brotherston was reluctant to give out specifics on current affairs viewership because she said the network's earthquake coverage was not about getting ratings.

-TimeOut